Game 2 in Moscow drew a much larger crowd than two days earlier, so the Krasnodar fan section was moved to the upper tier. Next to them, in section D-22, the youngest team from the club’s Academy was rooting for the adult Lokomotiv team—the U14 boys’ playoffs of the All-Russian competition begin tomorrow. Let’s go, Loko-2013!
The start of the game looked like a continuation of Game 1. Lokomotiv was on a good run and scoring a lot: Anton Kvitkovskikh quickly opened the scoring, followed by 3 consecutive long-range shots from Mike Moore, Kirill Temirov, and Kvitkovskikh. Regular season MVP Melo Trimble struggled again–he missed a couple of shots, was blocked by Kvitkovskikh, and then gave the ball to Temirov, who made it 14:9. But CSKA was ready to punish even the slightest mistakes, tying the score with 20 seconds of pure play. The Muscovites played a high, tight press, but Lokomotiv wasn’t fazed: Temirov scored from close contact; Kvitkovskikh, seeing Patrick Miller being pressed by two men, ran the length of the court with the ball himself, capping the moment with a basket; Makar Konovalov made a good entrance to the game. The substitutions actually added some fire to Lokomotiv’s game: Vsevolod Ishchenko blocked Nikita Kurbanov, Alen Hadzibegovic scored 4 points and stole the ball from Antonius Cleveland at the very end of the first quarter – 27:23 in our favor.
Then the opponents added to their defense: in the first 3 1/2 minutes of the 2nd quarter, the teams combined for 5 points, 4 of which were scored by Lokomotiv – Hadzibegovic made a basket on a pass from Jeremiah Martin, and then Martin himself hit a difficult shot. But after Krasnodar missed a couple of shots (which were open and quite promising), Luka Mitrović and Samson Ruzhentsev responded with contest two-pointers – 31:28. Vince Hunter scored from under the basket, then from the dunk. Casper Ware‘s long shot was answered with a layup by Ishchenko; Livio Jean-Charles‘ free throws were answered by Hunter, 39:34. Several unsuccessful plays followed for Lokomotiv: Miller was blocked, Moore stepped out of bounds, 3 more turnovers occurred in less than a minute and a half, and CSKA was already ahead, 39:40. Ishchenko had a good chance to restore his team’s lead to the tributaries of the 1st half, but his shot hit the hoop and went out.
After the game resumed, Moore finally stopped CSKA’s run with a long shot, making it 42:42. After a dunk from Hadzibegovic and a wild 2+1 from Miller, Lokomotiv took a 3-point lead, but their opponents had already found their rhythm: Jean-Charles was rampaging under our basket, Trimble, Ware, and Ivan Ukhov were taking turns hitting daring 3-pointers, and when one of them missed, Cleveland, bursting into the paint, made a spectacular put-back. Meanwhile, CSKA repeatedly lapsed defensively in quick transitions, allowing Ishchenko, Martin, and Hunter easy runs to the hoop. But if they couldn’t quickly convert the ball into offense, Lokomotiv struggled. Nevertheless, the 55:61 score by the end of the third quarter looked quite recoverable.
The pattern of play remained unchanged in the final 10 minutes: when Loko scored, it was easily, but, alas, these rallies were rare. For CSKA, Trimble was nailing one long-range shot after another, so by the 34th minute, the lead had reached double digits, 59:69. After a timeout, our team made a final attempt to get back into the game: Martin hit free throws, Hadzibegovic stole the ball from Jean-Charles, and a counterattack ended with a long-range shot from Moore, 64:69. But in the very next episode, Anton Astapkovich scored from afar, and Kvitkovskikh had to be urgently substituted due to cramped legs. Martin‘s isolation play was blocked by a forest of hands, 2 long-range shots from our players went wide, and Jean-Charles brought the gap to 12 points. Moore did manage to score 3 points, and with 2 1/2 minutes remaining, a drawn-out exchange of tactical penalties began. This flow was broken by another 3-pointer from Ware, and after that, the intrigue for the day was completely gone.
But the semifinal series is just getting started! Lokomotiv Kuban is taking home court advantage from Moscow–and now they need to maintain that advantage. And that depends, among other things, on you, our dear fans. We’re waiting for you in the stands at Basket Hall on May 18th and 20th. Let’s show how we can support our team in Krasnodar! Let’s remember how we won all our home games together in last year’s semifinals!
Go, Loko!